Waltham musician Linda Marks organizes Women in Music Gathering

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Friday

Nov 16, 2018 at 10:55 AMNov 16, 2018 at 10:55 AM

When the Women in Music Gathering Showcase gets going at the Burren in Somerville on Nov. 18, there will be 11 women onstage, each of them ready to perform a couple of songs, many of them ready to back up others on instruments or in voice. The event marks the first time this alliance of mostly singer-songwriters – which was formed last spring – will play out with this many of its 15 members.

It’s the brainchild of singer-songwriter-body psychotherapist and Waltham resident Linda Marks and social media publicist Cindy D’Adamo after they had a long chat about the challenges of being women in music. Marks was soon introduced to the Americana artist Colette O’Connor, and their discussions resulted in them putting together a list of collaborative women in music they knew.

“It’s an intergenerational group,” said Marks, proudly. “Our youngest member is in her mid-20s and we go up into the 60s.”

Marks is even more pleased that there will be such a variety of styles, within the singer-songwriter format, at the show, where performers will include Marks, Mara Bettencourt, Joanne Lurgio, Isabel Stover, Molly Ruggles, Lori Zuroff, Jane Fallon, CiCi Eberle, Colette O'Connor, Mary Crowe, and Kat Chapman.

“I’m a singer-songwriter, but my music crosses over from contemporary folk into jazz and Broadway,” said Marks. “Isabel is a pure classic jazz singer; Lori goes into the blues a bit; Mara has a sort of spiritual aspect to her songs; CiCi is a singer-songwriter, but it’s harder to put her in a box. She’s a really good storyteller through her songs.”

Marks was giving tidbits about each of the women playing that night when she was asked how she got into music in the first place.

“Music was always inside of me, even when I was 3,” she said. “My father wasn’t interested in music, and I had to buy my own piano when I was 12, because my parents wouldn’t get one. Even before that, when I was 8, I was trying to write on someone else’s piano. A friend of mine was a nasty entrepreneur, a little Trumpian girl. I’d go to her house and pay her, and then be able to play her piano. But I started saving money by doing lemonade stands and mowing lawns and shoveling snow, and when I was 12, I had enough money. There was a place in the Yellow Pages called Acme Piano Company. I looked up that company because of the Road Runner cartoons. Then I said to my parents, ‘I’m a kid, I work hard, I earned the money, I found the piano. Can you please drive me to the store, and can you find a place for me to put it?’ They let me get it, but they put it on the one-season porch, which is freezing except in the summer. And I could only play it when no one was home.”

But Marks persevered. Her first album, “Dreams and Themes,” came out in 1983. Her sixth, “Moments,” was just released. She was regularly performing around town, took a long break to tend to personal issues, and is now back into it. She’ll not only be singing and playing piano at the Burren show, she’s also the producer.

“The first show we did was in August, and there were four of us,” she said, referring to Women in Music Gathering. “But with the upcoming one, when you have this many people, I call it a revue. Most of the songs will be originals, and I’ll organize it into a revue featuring each singer. At the end, we’ll all be together on a song I wrote called ‘Light Up the Love,” and we’ll close with John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’

“There are a lot of wonderful singer-songwriters in the area,” she added, “and this is a wonderful way to bring us together as people as well as musicians.”

The Women in Music Gathering Showcase is at the Burren in Somerville on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $16. Info: 617-776-6896.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

Nov. 17:

Lake Street Dive puts together some fine jazzy instrument work with gorgeous vocals at the Wang Theatre in Boston. (8 p.m.)

Bela Fleck on banjo, Zakir Hussain on tabla, and Edgar Meyer on bass will play at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge. (8 p.m.)